Canada

CANADA - Defined benefit pension plans face stricter funding requirements under the regulator after solvency levels deteriorated due to historically low long-term interest rates and new actuarial rules.

CANADA - The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that would have forced plan administrators to disclose proposed changes to their pension plans to members.

CANADA - The C$30bn pension surplus litigation trial under which 18 unions, employee associations and retiree groups are suing the Canadian federal government, kicked off today.

CANADA - David Dodge, governor for the Bank of Canada, is in a position of significant conflict of interest, and his attack on pensioners and employees must be understood in this context, the Bank of Canada Pensioners Association (BCPA) has claimed....

CANADA - The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) reserve fund grew C$4.7bn to $91.7bn in the third quarter of 2005.

CANADA - Canadian policy-makers must rebalance the incentives for plan sponsors if DB plans are to survive, said Canada Governor David Lodge.

CANADA - Canada's pension fund deficit rose to C$190bn (US159bn) by end 2004, up from $160bn the year before, a report by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA) has found.

CANADA - The intense hurricane season has kept the energy-heavy Canadian stock market surging, boosting one-year pension investment returns to 15.1%.

CANADA - Plan sponsors in Canada intend to significantly reshuffle their asset portfolio following the elimination of the Foreign Property Rule (FPR), a study by Greenwich associates has found.

CANADA - The financial position of Canadian pension funds was lifted by the strong performance of domestic equities during the third quarter, according to Mercer.